St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-02
THE STATE OF TRADE.
Weekly Revie w of the Situation in
the World of Commerce.

lNEw YORK, April 1.-R. G. Dunn &
Co., in their weekly trade review, say:
With three inches of snow in Virginia,
roads in many sections almost impossible,
and Canada railroads blocked by drifts, dis
tribution of products is difficult. Save for
the extraordinary demand to anticipate the
interstate act and its change of rates. this
retarding weather would have been more
seriously felt AS it is dry goods and boot
and shoe dealers complain that from the
regions buried in snow smaller orders come
for summer clothing, and deep mud and
bad roads in many states arrest movements
of produce. The business of the past
month has been remarkably large. not only
at New York and Boston. but Chicago re-
ports phenomenal trade. and other cities
as well. Largely this business has been in
anticipation of demands for ten days to
come, OF more. Hence it is scarcely the
possible that noteworthy unreasonable re-
action should not be felt The opinion
grows that the interstate act will help the
railroads rather than hurt them. Its evil
dent tendency is to cause lower charges on
local traffic. which is the smaller, and higher
charges on the long through traffic, which
for important roads is the larger. Neither
uncertainty nor activity in markets under
such circumstances indicates much for the
future. Wheat has risen over 1 cent, with
sales of Is, 100000 bushels for the week.
Exports continue heavy. Oats, oil and
pork, products sugar and teas have scarcely
changed, with moderate changes. Coffee
has advanced quarter. Cattle and wool
are weaker, with tin and copper. Cotton
has doomed. with sales of LOGS, 200 bales
at New York in six days. Print cloths are
barely $3.50 cents with only 1853, 900 pieces
in sight, against 5S4, 900 pieces two years
ago. Iron is weaker at Philadelphia and
Pittsburg. The collapse of the coal combi-
nation and higher and fixed rates for trans
porting coal do not encourage consumers.
Whether the bank clearings, outside of
New York, ranging Is per cent.
above last year. indicates more than
temporary activity, cannot yet be judged.
But the great reduction of rates on Cana
dian canals for shipments to Canadian
ports and the attitude of the Grand Trunk
toward other trunk lines fOreshadow
sharper competition between Canadian and
New York forwarding merchants as other
new arrangements indicate manufacturing
development in Canada. The new Mich-
gan tariff promises larger traffic in that di-
rection after July l. With April settle.
ments over, large amounts of money uSu-
ally returns hither, and this year the
amount sent to Boston has been unusual,
the dividends payable there reaching S12,
662. O49, against STOOL, Ill last year.
Money has ranged from 3 to s per cent. for
the week. but operations to cause strin-
gency will now be increasingly difficult
every day. unless all unusual outgo of
money should set in as in 1884, in place of
the return customary in April. The fail
ures during the first quarter of 1887 were
smaller in number than in 1886. 1885 OF
1854. but the aggregate of liabilities was
larger than last year, not because of gen.
eral charging of Indebtedness, but because
few unusually heavy failures were in
ofudad